g between 14s. and 19s. per week. The earnings in the chief
textile industries show wide variations, yielding, however, a rough
average of about 20s. weekly wages in cotton mills, and about 22s. in
woollen mills. A general comparison would yield a standard of some
15s. as the customary wage corresponding to the 10s. in England
(_Report of the Commissioner of Labour_, 1888, chap. iii. and Table
xxix.). Some allowance, however, must be made for the more expensive
living in American cities. However, in spite of the fact that
organised action is almost unknown among women workers in America, the
real wages are higher than in England. This is partly owing to the
general insistence upon a higher standard of consumption, partly to
the fact that a larger number of employments are open to women than in
England, and partly to the higher skill and intelligence they put into
their work. Thus the maximum wage, measured by productivity, is
higher, the minimum, measured by "wants," is higher, while the terms
of competition do not so generally keep down actual wages to the
minimum.

[253] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 410.

[254] It must, however, be borne in mind that the results of such a
policy followed by Lancashire, or any other single part of the textile
industry of the world, would be qualified or even negatived if the
example was not followed by their competitors.

[255] This effect of industrial opportunities for women and children
in promoting early and more fruitful marriages is also illustrated in
Lancashire; the average family of the factory operative is
considerably higher than the average for the working classes as a
whole.

[256] Gunton, _Wealth and Progress_, p. 169.

[257] _Report of the Statistics of Labour_, p. 71.

[258] Dr. Smart has a valuable treatment of the subject in his
pamphlet, _Women's Wages_, pp. 22-25.

[259] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 469.

[260] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 460.

[261] _Ibid._, vol. i. p. 459; cf. also p. 469.

[262] Smart, _Woman's Wages_, p. 23.

[263] In some cases where women are found getting the same rate of
wages as men, the industry is a woman's industry in which a few
lower-skilled or inferior male workers are employed. The woman's scale
dominates, the men who are employed descending to it. This is the case
in some weaving trades where men work still almost entirely with
hand-looms, leaving women with a practical mon